NYPD Launches Probe Into Pepper Spray Incident as New Video Surfaces

September 28, 2011 at 5:40 pm

The NYPD has launched an internal investigation into a now-notorious video of a police official pepper spraying a crowd of Wall Street protesters, Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Wednesday.

His announcement, made at an unrelated press conference, came as a new video emerged of the same officer apparently spraying a second group of people during the protest, which occurred on Saturday near Union Square.

Chelsea Elliott, 25, dropped to her knees in tears while standing on the sidewalk on East 12th Street during a protest against economic equality. Police sources said that Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna is responsible for using the pepper spray on demonstrators. MetroFocus/Sam Lewis

Kelly said the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which investigates reports of excessive force by the NYPD, is also looking into the incident.

A separate video was published Wednesday by Daily Kos of a second incident during the protest in which a white-shirted officer who looks like Bologna walks up to people on a sidewalk — including one person wearing press credentials — and sprays in their direction before walking away.

The NYPD did not respond to requests for comment on the second video.

But Kelly condemned the decision by some protesters to release Bologna’s name, as well as his personal information, as a “terrible practice.”

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